The disclosure comes just days after Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, admitted that school sports provision was still too patchy.

It was also revealed this week that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has approved the sale of more than 20 school playing fields since the last General Election.

Officials insisted most became surplus when existing schools closed or amalgamated.

But the figures could prove embarrassing for the Government as the nation continues to be swept along by the success of the London Olympics and Team GB’s medal haul.

Today, the Youth Sport Trust criticised the decision to scrap the two hour PE target, claiming it was now difficult to identify which schools were failing to provide enough lessons.

“Measuring the number of young people participating in two hours of school sport did give a clear indication of participation levels in sport in schools across the country,” a spokesman said. “There is still some great work going on in schools but it is now more difficult to know exactly where provision is good and where it needs to be improved.”

Under the previous Government, all children of compulsory school age were expected to take part in two hours of sport a week. By 2009/10, some 86 per cent of pupils were meeting the target.

Labour later outlined a long-term goal of ensuring children did five hours a week of physical activity during lesson time or after school.

As part of a new school sport strategy published in late 2010, the Coalition axed the last Government’s targets – including the new “five hour offer” – claiming they led to a decline in the number of children taking part in traditionally competitive sports such as rugby union, netball and hockey. A sports census completed by schools every year was also scrapped.

But a statement released at the time suggested that all schools would be expected to “continue providing two hours a week of PE and sport”.

Today, the Department for Education insisted that this was no longer the case.

“Instead of handing down target and quotas from Whitehall, we have chosen to trust teachers and parents when it comes to deciding how much sport pupils should do,” a spokesman said.

“We want to strip away the red tape that takes up too much time teachers should be using to teach, run sports clubs or plan lessons. In the past, schools were heavily over-burdened with paperwork and form-filling.”

Speaking earlier this week, Mr Hunt said: “I think at the moment school sport provision is patchy in some places, and we need to do what we can to make sure that the very best examples are spread throughout the whole country, and this is absolutely going to be a focus over the next few months and one of the things that we really want to take away from these Games."